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> > > for Thank you very much for your detailed information. It certainly does answer all my questions. My very best wishes & Cheers to you & your lovely Rough Collies! Gayle MacLean Duart(Reg) English Springer Spaniels Vice-President, English Springer Spaniel Club Of Canada Dartmouth, NS ---- bev wigney <bev@magickcanoe.com> wrote: > Gayle and all, > > To answer a few of your questions - for those who may also be interested in birding or other nature-related apps. > > "app" is a term referring to "application software" - a program that is designed for a particular applicattion - to perform a particular task. The ones that I have written about in my earlier note are all applications designed to run on Apple mobile devices such as the iPad and the iPhone. I am not familiar with birding apps designed to run on other mobile units such as tablets or smart phones which are using operating systems such as Android. However, I just checked the ibird.com website and see that they do have an Android version of iBird Pro available for $9.99. As the Android system is also very popular, I would not be surprised to find that there are or will be more nature apps available for them as well. > > As a rule, most mobile Apple apps are written specifically to run on an Apple mobile unit, but not on an Apple laptop or desktop unit. There is a reason for this and it has much to do with navigation on a mobile unit - being all touch screen operated - where a person taps or swipes to select or move from screen to screen. An app that is designed for a touch screen unit probably can't run properly on a computer that uses a mouse for navigation. Apple does have a somewhat new thing - apps that can be downloaded and run in Mac laptops and desktops, but I am not sure if the various birding fieldguides would be among those that are available. I checked the iBird website and I don't see one. The best thing to do would be to look up the websites of companies that produce software such as iBird and see if they have other versions designed for PCs. You can probably find birding fieldguide software just by doing a Google search. > > Regarding the Apple app store - it is accessed through its own app on the mobile unit and not through a web URL. The "store app" connects to the store to allow you to search for apps using various methods of finding what you want. You then buy them (some are free) and download them into your mobile unit. It is a simple process and takes seconds - no real installation process as it does everything itself. One note for travelers. If you are intending to buy a birding app for your iPad or iPhone, you must do so either by downloading into mobile unit while connected to your high-speed internet connected computer, OR you can download using a fast wifi connection. Apple will not allow direct downloading to a 3G enabled mobile unit for apps over about 10 MB in size (most birding apps are several hundred MB in size). I did not know this before leaving to go west last year and had to wait until I had access to a high speed wifi connection somewhere on the > road in order to download the iBird Pro app. > > I think that should answer most of your questions. Gayle. If anyone has others, I don't mind attempting to answer them as well. > > Regarding my travels - yes, I do feel very fortunate to have traveled to and spent much time camped in so many areas of North America, especially those vast open spaces of the high desert rangelands in the western U.S., the coastal redwood forests of California, and to the red rock country of the Four Corners region of the southwest, and the Sky Islands of southeast Arizona. That said, from a nature perspective, Nova Scotia is among the most unique places that I have chosen to spend time. We are all very fortunate to live in such a place. > > bev wigney > Round Hill, NS (in summer) > > > --- On Sun, 8/28/11, duartess@ns.sympatico.ca <duartess@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote: > > > From: duartess@ns.sympatico.ca <duartess@ns.sympatico.ca> > > Subject: Re: [NatureNS] world birding app for ipad > > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > > Cc: "bev wigney" <bev@magickcanoe.com> > > Received: Sunday, August 28, 2011, 2:58 PM > > Hi Bev, > > > > Thank you very much for your input. Your information is > > very interesting. I was wondering if any of these "app's" > > (what is that an acronym for?) compatible for just a regular > > personal computer and, if so, as I am not very computer > > savvy, what is/are the link/s (if there are any) to > > purchase, or download these sites? > > I always enjoy reading your posts and I think you are so > > fortunate to be able to travel around North America & > > for such extended periods of time. > > > > Cheers! > > > > Gayle MacLean > > Dartmouth > > > > ---- bev wigney <bev@magickcanoe.com> > > wrote: > > > Hello Fawne, and all, > > > > > > Someone else on the list may correct me on this, but I > > don't think there is yet a worldwide birding app available > > for the iPad. If there was, I suspect it would be > > fairly costly and also take up a lot of memory. > > > > > > Here is what I found after checking theI just checkin > > the app store. There are now several companies > > offering birding apps, but all are by region. > > > > > > I use iBird Explorer Pro for North America. iBird > > comes in regional versions as well - they are less expensive > > and require less memory. However, I travel across > > N.A., so I bought the North America version. It is > > regularly around $30, but seems to be on sale for around $20 > > at the moment. I see that iBird now has a version for > > the UK and Ireland and it is priced at about $14. > > > > > > BirdGuides Ltd. has some apps available, but again, > > they are by region. For example, there is a Birds of > > Brazil app available for 12.99 which is about 700 MB in size > > (some of the Bird apps are quite large as they include > > photos, audio, etc...) I see that the same company > > offers a Birds of Northern Europe for 20.99, and a Birds of > > Britain and Ireland for 17.99. > > > > > > If you do a search for Birds and a country, for > > example, "birds africa" in the app store, you may find other > > guides. For example, I just tried that search and came uo > > with a Birds of Africa app by Oren Meiri for around $10. > > > > > > There is also a Peterson's Birds of North America app > > available for 14.99, and Audubon guides for North America > > and also by region for around the same price. I don't > > think either of those are available as versions for other > > coun